Super Speedway: The Mach II SE-Better?

I've heard about Super Speedway but never got overly interested. Yesterday I went over to this guy's house to buy a center channel from him. We were talking about the recent addition of a Klipsch Academy center to his system so he threw in Super Speedway.
OH MY GOD!
I must have this DVD! I was planning to go out and get it today but I saw that there is a DTS version coming out next month. I tend to favor DTS versions so I could wait but I'm really dying to play this DVD in my system.
My question: Is the only thing different about the SE is the addition of DTS? Is it going to have any improvements to the transfer, etc? I don't really care if there are extras, I want it for the track scenes.
Thanks for any input.
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You want to upgrade again?!!

As someone who owns a DTS copy of this film already (Laserdisc) I can say for certain that only one word is needed to describe the race car scence...
SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET
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-JinMy Theater

Scott,
Super Speedway is extremely highly recommended as a demo DVD. It is not as long as a feature film. It shows how a race car is built, all the way from the car's conception to its testing.
The scene where Mario is driving under the overpasses will blow you away. There is deep bass going all the way down to around 15 Hz.

This is one great demo. I have both the dolby digital dvd and the DTS LD. Awesome! I'm a car guy to begin with, but even my friends who are not are blown away. Thanks for the heads-up on the new dvd. I'll pick that up.

Hmmm, Ill have to (double) look into this now. Are the races long? Is there a lot of races? Does the perspective change while racing, (or fixed at 1st person)?
Is it authentic to itself? I mean, are they the REAL sounds and things like that? Not foley or exagerrated.
I might have to buy it for myself or my friend who is a BIG gearhead too. (woops, is gearhead bad terminology?)
Uh, car guy. Yeah.

As a long time owner and fan of the first DVD I can't believe I let it slide under the radar screen that this new release is coming out.
This disc is far and away one of THE definitive demos that I use to show off the system to home theater neophytes.

Supporter

--Hmmm, Ill have to (double) look into this now. Are the races long? Is there a lot of races? Does the perspective change while racing, (or fixed at 1st person)?--
The races are not overly long...more of an appetizer than dinner. The camera rig they used for filming the in-car scenes weighed about 85 lbs, I believe.At close to 200 MPH the camera weight became a factor in the car's handling. This information comes from the documentary on the film's making...quite interesting as well. There are a couple of races with the last one being the longest. The perspective changes from in-car to out of car quite a bit. I find auto racing extremely boring to watch but when I saw this show I was impressed enough that I bought a copy of it.
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"You bring a horse for me?""Looks like......looks like we're shy of one horse.""No.......You brought two too many."

Great DVD. The film is an IMAX movie shot in 1.33:1 and the new DVD is somehow letterboxed. The camera weighed a lot and did effect the handling of the car, but since it was not a competition car, it was allowed more turbo pressure than the CART rules stipulated for races, so it had significantly more HP and was as fast or faster than the other cars despite the added weight and aero penalty of the IMAX camera.
-------------------- Will Work for Five Million Dollars

Hello Steve. Welcome to HTF. BTW, I got the KV-3 set up and it sounds great. It really fills in the center of the soundstage much better than the SC-1 ever did.
Well, I think that I'll get the DD version of SS for now and then the DTS version when it comes out. My brother is just getting into HT and he's in the process of putting a new system together. I'll give him the DD version after I get the DTS one. He should have a copy to show off his new setup.
I gotta get this DVD. Now.
Thanks for all the input.
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You want to upgrade again?!!

Firstly, I have the original release on dvd, and I too was excited about a re-release especially as I have a 16x9 TV. But I have two reservations:- First of all, if it was originally shot 1.33:1 than any 16:9 version must be significantly cropped top and bottom. Secondly, I only have a DD5.1 amp, and if the new version has an additional DTS track then won't the picture and Dolby track have to be more compressed to allow for the extra bit rate taken up by DTS.

I'm sure I read somewhere that only the 'making of' documentary will be anamorphic. 16:9 enhancement of a 4:3 picture results in less resolution, so there's little point.
You don't get to see a whole race. It's a documentary (though one that's contrived and rehersed), so all you get is short sections. There's one scene where the background music is Dire Straits' Once Upon A Time In The West, which is really cool, but I found the rest of it less than gripping.
Nice sound, but its' very, very, VERY loud and will tear your ears off at high volume.[Edited last by Rob Gillespie on August 21, 2001 at 02:26 AM]

Aren't all Imax films 1.33? I have the Michael Jordan to the MAX DVD and it's anamorhic and looks pretty good to me.
Also isn't there a HDTV demo loop of Super Speedway at 16X9? Or am I thinking of something else?
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Mitsubishi 55807
Toshiba 5109
Yamaha RX-V496DVD Collection

The addition of a DTS track should have no effect on the DD track. DD already uses a maximum bitrate of... was it 448? Full-rate DTS is over 1500 - but usually only half-rate is used nowadays. Which is too bad, IMHO.
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/Kimmo

"If we do happen to step on a mine, Sir, what do we do?"
"Normal procedure, Lieutenant, is to jump 200 feet in the air and scatter oneself over a wide area." -- "BlackAdder 4"